Local Review: Isaac Black- Paying Dues

Isaac Black
Paying Dues
Street: 05.01.2026
El Negrito Records
Isaac Black = Ry Cooder + Cam Coleman + psychedelic Beatles

Isaac Black’s first full-length arrives after years of tinkering in bands and even hauling a guitar through an LDS mission in Mexico. That detail alone tells you something. Most people come back from a mission with stories and a tighter haircut. Black came back with calluses and unfinished songs.

The album cover shows him sitting on concrete steps with his guitar, a little Matte brew kit nearby, wearing one of those bluesman jackets that looks entirely too hot for comfort. Which is correct. Blues was never meant to be comfortable. Can you even imagine listening to real blues in air conditioning? The jacket is part of the uniform. The heat is part of the deal.

Black is young, but the voice coming through these songs belongs to an older soul who’s been waiting for a chance to speak. His earlier five-song EP Back Home showed promise, especially in the Latin and flamenco guitar work, but it still felt like a first swing. Paying Dues is the moment he stops warming up and actually steps into the frame. It’s a focused blues record that still allows itself the occasional weird left turn, and those detours are half the fun.

The album opens with a spoken monologue that leans hard into every blues cliché you’ve ever heard, then immediately undercuts them by tracing the music back to the cotton fields and the spiritual necessity of grief. The voice tells you the blues is about getting knocked down and deciding to stand back up anyway. Then a distorted riff snarls in behind the words, and the final line lands clean: “Blues is about paying dues.” It’s a thesis statement delivered with just enough static to keep it from feeling academic.

“Picking up Pennies” spins the record in the opposite direction. The recording sounds like it was captured from the back of a two-pump gas station garage — distant mic, dusty air, everything a little out of reach. You can barely make out the lyrics, which somehow works in its favor. The real conversation is happening between the organ and the guitars as they keep trying to upstage each other. There’s real tension in the arrangement, and you end up rooting for both sides of the argument.

Then comes “Little Red Turbocharged Flying Machine,” which sits shamelessly on top of the same rhythmic chassis as Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.” The familiarity hooks you instantly, but Black takes the car somewhere else entirely. The bassline is the star here — it could have been played on a bass guitar, a bass viol, or a washtub bass and still sounded this cool. It’s one of those tracks that makes you grin while you’re listening because you can feel how much fun they were having when they cut it.

“Shadow People” opens with a modern jazz bassline that immediately signals Black isn’t interested in staying in one lane. Halfway through, Pink Floyd atmospheres and heavy Led Zeppelin weight start bleeding into the mix. He blends the influences with surprising precision. The song runs six minutes and refuses to settle into any single genre, sliding between them like it knows exactly where the seams are. By the time the lyrics finally come into focus — “Can’t fight a shadow, bullets won’t do you no good” — you’ve already been pulled under.

“Still Loungin” is the purest blues track on the record: harmonica out front, guitar keeping the riffs simple enough for the words to hit. The lyrics are pure working-man’s blues: “I can’t seem to make it work, I’m just doin’ what I can.” No pyrotechnics, no irony, just the thing itself.

“Ghost Town” is where Black lets the psychedelic leash out. There’s a clear John Lennon “I Am the Walrus” spirit floating through it, but the song never abandons the album’s blues foundation. The riffs get heavier and stranger, and you start wondering just how far he’s willing to push the sound before the whole thing tips over. It never does. He keeps control even while the walls start bending.

Paying Dues is not a museum piece and it’s not trying to be the Crossroads soundtrack. You won’t find anyone cutting heads in a dusty parking lot here. What you get instead is a young writer with real instinct, a guitar player who already understands restraint, and a record that feels lived-in rather than studied. The experimental moments never sound like experiments. They just sound like a guy following the song where it wants to go.

There’s clear talent here — in the songwriting, in the blending of styles, and in the confidence to let a track breathe when most new artists would overfill it. Paying Dues rewards repeated listens. I’m already curious what Black will do once he tightens the screws even further on the next one.

For a first full-length, this is a strong hand. Play it loud enough to feel the heat. —Jeremy Cloward

Read more local album reviews here:
Local Review: The Rockies — ANOTHER ALBUM! – SLUG Mag
Local Review: Pigimichi — Old Quarters – SLUG Magazine

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